The Philadelphia Phillies‘ offense absolutely no-showed during their NLDS loss to the New York Mets.
As a whole, the lineup hit a putrid .186, with an abysmal .598 OPS. The only two hitters who showed up were Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos. Those two went 11-for-29, with two home runs, six RBI, and five runs scored. The rest of the team went 13-for-100.
According to Matt Gelb of The Athletic, the Phillies’ sixth through ninth hitters went 5-for-54 for an .093 average — the lowest ever postseason average for a lineup’s bottom half of the order.
During the four-game series, Phillies hitters couldn’t stop chasing pitches that were balls. According to Robert Orr of Baseball Prospectus, the lineup chased fastballs out of the strike zone a whopping 44 percent of the time — 15 percentage points higher than they did in the regular season. They also wildly swung at numerous off-speed pitches and breaking balls.
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Phillies vs Fastballs (4-seamers, sinkers, hard cutters)
— Robert Orr (@NotTheBobbyOrr) October 9, 2024
Reg season: 48% zone , 48% swing , 29% chase
Postseason: 49% zone , 57% swing , 44% chase
They've managed to nearly exclusively add a bunch of swings on balls while seeing the same amount in the zone.
In five out of their last six playoff games, the Phillies scored two runs or fewer. In the Game 7 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 NLCS, they scored one run on five hits. In the NLDS Game 4 defeat against the New York Mets, the lineup managed just one run on four hits.
Philadelphia Phillies star thought offense could ‘flip the switch’
The Phillies’ offense had been struggling heading into the playoffs. Catcher J.T. Realmuto, who went 0-for-11 in the four-game loss, thought they would just be able to flip a switch.
J.T. Realmuto is now 0-for-11 in this NLDS. pic.twitter.com/hYV40aV63e
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 9, 2024
“We knew we weren’t playing our best baseball coming into the postseason,” Realmuto told The Athletic’s Matt Gelb. “But we were hoping that once the lights turned on, we’d flip the switch and our offense would get back going. It just didn’t happen for us.”
It’s a pretty damning comment about the state of the offense if Realmuto and the rest of the hitters thought they would be able to turn it on with a snap of the finger.
This offense showed they can’t grind out at-bats, are unable to come through in situational hitting, and chase way too many pitches.
It’s going to be another long offseason for the Phillies as the front office seeks to determine how to correct and upgrade this offense.
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